Tuesday, August 23, 2011

COS: Let's Discuss: Utak

Utak (You-tack) means “High Mountains”

If you want to know more about the Utak origin story, read Said in Stone.

Capital: Lake City
Flag: Royal blue background, silver fist (you can see this flag on the cover in the background of Said in Stone)
Money: Barter/Gold/precious gems
Exports: Every other country depends on Utak for it's water - they don't charge for it, but they do control its flow.  Hence the saying, All life flows from Utak
The official exports are:  Crops, Ryke meat, Paynach (pronounced Pay-nack) stone, salt
Dangers:  Roaming Ybarra herds - especially at harvest time, not following the law

Characters from this land: Rube, Pax, Talon, Brenna, Mari, Loni, Jac Ryn, Mari's mother 

Land
Think of dividing the U.S.A. into quarters, this would be located in the northwest corner and look more like Africa turned upside down. Picture a country populated by Thomas Kincaide buildings with enormous rocky mountains in the background and you pretty much have the fairy-tale like quality that exists in Utak.  95% of it is rural with its spiritually-minded people spread evenly over the area.

People
Known to contain the most beautiful women in the world.  Wars have begun over this fact - Kings want a Utakian wife and Utak won't grant permission entrance into their land  to just anyone.  Once a  year, there is a festival where traders are allowed in, but everyone is carefully checked/monitored.
  
History
Back when the Five Creators were roaming around the land, the one that ruled Utak was Jaydren the Just.  He built a wall out of...well, I won't let the cat out of the bag since  "Five - the Power Rising" tells that story, but by book 6, Chest of Souls, this wall has crumbled over the millennia.  People no longer remember what the wall was supposed to represent.

Arches of Utak
Utak is enchanted and everyone that enters will have to pass under two arches made of what people think are an extremely large but extinct animal's tusks.  The bones are on the south end of a fertile seemingly deserted valley. This arch was completed in ancient times (You'll have to read Said in Stone to understand how and why) and no one living knows how it works, only that everyone who enters Utak, will find themselves by these arches, no matter what direction they are coming from.  


If you want to know what Utak looks like by the time Talon/Brenna are born, and shows more of what the area around Rykett would be like in northeastern Utak, Here is a link that I recently found (2023) that really helps a person envision what the country of Utak is visually: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPzy_gjpFq8

The link will take you to Peter B Helland "The Ancient Tale" which is a bit over 4 minutes long.

 

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